Interview with Roxanne Rhoads

When not fulfilling one the many roles being a wife and mother of three require, Roxanne's world revolves around words...reading them, writing them, editing them, and talking about them. In addition to writing her own stories she loves to read and review what others write. She operates a book review site, Fang-tastic Books, dedicated to her favorite type of book- anything paranormal. Her favorite genres are paranormal romance and urban fantasy but she'll read just about anything featuring vampires, ghosts, witches and whatnot.

Roxanne writes everything from articles to web content as a freelance writer and poet. Her erotic and romance stories and poems have appeared in Playgirl Magazine, several print anthologies, in ebooks and on numerous Web sites including: JustusRoux.com, OystersandChocolate.com, TheEroticWoman.com, FortheGirls.com, AssociatedContent.com/roxanne, BareBackMag.com, LucreziaMagazine.com, and RuthiesClub.com

She has several ebooks available through Eternal Press: Tasty Christmas Treats, Eternal Desire, the soon to be published Insatiable and 2 of her short paranormal erotic stories appear in the anthology Sexy Paranormal Bedtime Stories. All of these can be purchased in print at Amazon.com.

Her story "The First Brick" appears in Lasting Lust: An Anthology of Kinky Couples in Love available at RavenousRomance.com

A double shot of her paranormal erotica- Torrid Teasers Volume 59 is available through Whiskey Creek Press Torrid.

Ten tantalizing, erotic tales of vampires, witches and demons grace the pages of this short story collection by Roxanne Rhoads.

Step into the darkness and let these tales tempt and tease to satisfy your paranormal cravings.

Eight of Roxanne Rhoads’ previous eBook publications appear in this collection, along with two brand new, never before published tales of supernatural love and lust.

Welcome to Black Lagoon Reviews, Roxanne!

BLR: Can you tell us a little about Paranormal Pleasures?

RR: It's a collection of 10 erotic paranormal stories. Eight are previously published, two are brand new. A couple are examples of my early work while a few were just written this past year.

I re-edited everything for this book and was amazed at how much my writing style has evolved over the past 6 years.

BLR: If you had to pick a favorite out of this anthology which would it be and why?

RR: “A Halloween to Remember”- I am a huge fan of Halloween and when writing this I just went wild with the party thinking about what kind of wild off the wall things I could throw into a Halloween party to make it really “interesting”.

BLR: All of these stories focus on the supernatural/paranormal, what is it about this particular genre that appeals to you and why do you think it's so popular with readers?

RR: It is pure escapism. In a world torn apart by war and economic despair some readers don't want to read about more war and 'real life' stuff- they want to escape, they want to believe in magic believe that something else is out there- if only in the pages of a book.

BLR: When writing, where do you get your inspiration from?

RR: Everywhere. I try to pay attention to everything; I never know what odd little tidbit of information may inspire a character or story.

BLR: Do you have a particular writing process when writing your novels and short stories?

RR: No, with three kids and a busy life I just try to fit writing in whenever I can. I don't have time for rituals or routines- when the moment arrives or the opportunity appears or hell when the muse sends me an idea, I just sit down and write. Sometimes it old school with a pen and notebook, other times it's at my desktop computer.

BLR: Writing short stories can often be one of the hardest things to write for aspiring authors because of how quickly you have to create the world and build characters the reader will enjoy while maintaining an interesting and quick storyline. What advice can you offer to aspiring writers who struggle with this?

RR: I really don't know. For me I'm the opposite. I'm better with the shorts; it's dragging everything out into a full length novel that gives me a hard time. I love writing the short stuff, packing everything into a neat little package that can be tidied up and finished quickly.

BLR: What got you started in writing erotic romance?

RR: I was a non-fiction writer and having a hard time getting a lot of professional publishing credits under my belt. Then one day I decided to start writing about sex. Sex is something I know a lot about (at one point in my college life when I was a psychology major I had considered becoming a sex therapist) so I decided to write sexual advice. Then I started working on fiction and erotic romance was a natural progression.

BLR: A lot of writers find it hard to write erotic romance and are often embarrassed when writing sexually charged scenes. What advice can you give to writers to help overcome this obstacle?

RR: The sex scenes are where I started writing fiction. I found writing sex easier than anything else. I guess because it was the most real part of human interaction for me- there's not much to make up- if that makes any sense. You write what's happening, you toss in emotion and everything else comes later- the dialogue the character traits and interaction. How the couple have sex and can determine much about who they are. I used to start my stories with the sex scene and build everything else around that. I don't anyone, but that's how I started with my fiction. Now I'm branching off into fiction that doesn't even contain a sex scene.

As for advice for writers who have trouble with the sex scenes, start with the basics. Write the sex you know about write what you are comfortable with then push your boundaries, become more open, more description, more dirty. LOL.

Everyone has sex (or wants to be having sex) so it's nothing to be embarrassed about, just start typing. Just be as natural as you can- avoid the silly words and enjoy what you write ;-)

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